College Application Essay

College Application Essay Describe a time when you made a meaningful contribution to others in which the greater good was your focus. Discuss the challenges and rewards of making your contribution. Word and character counts can be paralyzing if you allow them to dictate your approach to an essay topic. Then, take a step back in order to gain perspective. As you begin to edit and refine the idea, challenge your word choices. Are they essential to conveying the key messages? Doing so is unnecessarily redundant and can limit your ability to take a more expansive approach with your essay. The resulting essay will not reflect you and thus will not accomplish its goal, no matter how “good” it seems to be. DON’T be pretentious or overly formal â€"this is not the time to play the role of Albert Einstein or Mother Teresa if that’s not who you are. Resist the temptation to portray yourself as a saint with a 4.0â€"you’re better off presenting the real you. DO be yourself â€" your essay should sound as if it could have been written by no one else. We remain dedicated to serving you during these challenging times of COVID-19. According to Common Application’s own reporting, the application year saw 23.6% of respondents selecting Topic #5 and 22.5% selecting Topic #1. The Common App is also a great way to save time and money. For lots more information on applying to college, see the links on the next page. Did you know that Babson has a Writing Center on campus? Staffed by professors and peer consultants, it offers a supportive environment to practice and refine your writing. Risa C. Doherty is a copy editor and education and parenting writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Working Mother and Boston Parents Paper, among others. In a 2007 Boston magazine article, Harry Lewis, former dean of Harvard College, drew a parallel between professional essay editing and hiring an imposter to sit for the SAT. “All this scribbling has almost nothing to do with whether the student gets in,” he wrote. Finally, when you think you are finished with your essay, dare to make it great! First, attempt to reduce your word count by 10%. You don’t need to remind the reader at the start of each sentence. Demonstrate the synergy between yourself and the institution in response to the “Why do you want to come here? Find creative solutions to conveying ownership of your thoughts. Don’t use the word “I” to start sentences any more than is necessary. We’ll make sure you get the right guidance at the right time. Students use their grades and test scores to select where they apply. Doing so will force you to examine every word, thought and article of punctuation. Even if you are not able to reduce by 10%, making an honest attempt at it will make your essay better. Don’t worry about the word count until you have developed a complete draft. Reveal an awareness of instructional style and independent learning opportunities. Risk-taking is an interesting element of creative writing. Done well, it can lift your presentation from the mundane and safe to the provocative and insightful. Discover schools with the programs and courses you’re interested in, and start learning today.